We all want a better life right?

I have come to the realization that you don’t have to get a ton of stuff done every day! Woh!

I know just take a moment. Let it simmer.

I have been the type of person that feels like if I don’t knock off everything on my list then it wasn’t a productive day. Of course the list always grew every day. I got so exhausted trying to keep up with it. The other day I thought, ‘I needed a chill pill.’ I realized that sometimes it is ok to get just 1-3 things done. Some days it is even a good idea to do nothing and take a break. We live in a world where things are constantly moving. Technology is advancing so rapidly that we panic if we set the computer or phone down we might miss out on something. We won’t. It will all be there tomorrow. Living in the mindset that you have to go go go go just leads you to the inevitable crash. My dad taught an awesome series on “Pondering the Path of your Feet”. He talked about how we actually have a “circle path”. These are our habits, the things we do every day. These things that we do every day are actually the things that will either propel us forward or backwards.

I have been pondering, ‘What are my circle paths?’ (the things I do daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) I decided the best way to get my circle path to the place where I’m living the life I want is to adjust one thing at a time. I imagined what my day would look like if I was living the life I want, then what are the “habits” in that day or life?

Imagine your PERFECT day and what it looks like.

What are you doing? How does it feel?

We should start by visualizing what we want and where we want to go. If we walk through life not knowing where we are going we might wake up one day so far from where we are supposed to be. We must visualize where we are going. Imagine what you want and what it feels like. Bring your future to your present. (that is just like using your faith) Connect to what it is you want and you will see more clearly the path to get there.

Taking it one step at a time will get you to the a better life with better habits. We all want that end result and that “perfect” day now. But, if we attempt to bite off the whole thing right away we will just create a habit of false starts. This is not a concept that is new. It isn’t something that we haven’t heard before or read before.

If you are like me you have read blogs like this countless times and said, “Yeah, I’m going to do this! It will be great ‘New year. New me.'” Then come 3rd week of January you’re beating yourself up again because you can’t seem to keep up.

Rule of Thirds

Another tip for creating a better life with better habits is the “Rule of Thirds”. Make a list of your top 3 goals. Then write down 3 reasonable things that you think you can accomplish and commit to just that for 1 month. Often times what keeps us from stopping and completing our goals is that we create “dream goals” that we know we can’t really accomplish so in our mind we don’t believe we will accomplish it. Well that little quiet thought in the “back of our minds” is the little culprit killing it before we even start. So think through your goals and start with the one that you KNOW you can accomplish. You have to believe in yourself. When we can accomplish the first thing we set our mind to then that will encourage you to continue with your goals and really reach that better life with better habits!

Some of the habits I am going to start with are:

– making my bed every morning

– plan the next day the night before

– hanging my clothes up!

– drink more water

I put together a list of tools to get you started! Habit Planning Tools…..who doesn’t get inspired by an awesome planner and some fun pens!

Last but not least…..Embrace Failure!

STOP beating yourself up when you don’t stick to your plan. Life should never be forced to be “perfect”. We can’t expect perfection and think we will achieve our goals and create healthy habits. When you think of your goals/habits as a “lifestyle” you can embrace failure and let life happen. Just get back on the horse. Stick to your plan and if “life” happens then live that life and start fresh the next day. Don’t get upset that “life” happens. This is your life and the way you look at each situation is up to you. If you put so much pressure on being perfect and working out EVERY day….one day you aren’t able to do that you will create a defeated feeling.

Take a deep breath.

This is your life! Live it and embrace it!

Don’t villanize “life”. Let things happen. If appointments, family, or weather gets in the way of your “plans”. Enjoy those moments and don’t villanize them. You want to create an excitement around your plans and goals that makes it a joy and a treat to do them. Shift your mind to embrace your life and know that creating a habit is not about a perfect schedule it is about not stopping. When “life” happens you don’t stop that habit because habits are now apart of that “life”. So embrace life and embrace those things that get in your way and just use your problem solving skills to think of how you can work your habits around “life”.

Create a positive emotions toward your goals.

I know you can do it! We will encourage each other on this endeavor of “Circle Paths” and “The Rule of Thirds”.

The Reading Corner:

Here are some books from some that say it better than me. From New York Times Best Sellers. Check out the links below to continue your journey to better habits and a better life!

What are your “Circle paths”? What are your top three?

What habits do you have that you think are helping your life move in the right direction? What habits do you think you need to change?

Comment Below and let me know what your goals are for this year?

What are some circle paths that you want to change and what are some circle paths you would like to make this year?

Well……I’m not even sure who is reading this or who has read any of my older blogs. Maybe just those people that come to either sell me web-design services or SEO marketing services or those scam people that just leave random comments that aren’t even in english……

I graduated with a graphic design degree and naturally when thinking about starting a blog, of course it should be about graphic design right? Naturally, I should write about that, the thing that I am still paying for…..the thing I was supposed to create a career doing. Except, thats not what I am passionate about. It is not all I love.

I have had difficulty coming up with things to write in the box of just “graphic design” and truthfully I am not even working on graphic design projects anymore.

I love so many things and in my journey to find my “niche” I realized I might not have JUST ONE.

Why can’t I love a lot of things? Also, why can’t I share all of them with you in one place?……….

I understand the marketing stand point that having a niche helps you define your target audience and really helps in growing your influence.

The way I see it is it wouldn’t be fair to just focus on one thing and not share with all the other niche’s and all the other audiences that might want to hear what I have learned or what I might have to say about whatever……

I love the Lord and the word and really get passionate about that….

I love working in film……

I love acting…..

I love production…..

I love creative things and get really inspired by marketing and design….

I love crafting….

I love to paint…..

and……oh man the list goes on

The truth is I have no idea where this road of my life will lead me. I don’t know what content I will create…..but I do know that I want to share my experiences with you. I learn so much from other people that choose to share their experiences with me. Really sometimes they save me from having to experience their journey or encourages me to experience things they enjoy. Isn’t that really the thing? We should all share and help each other achieve our goals and do what we are called to do.

So I want to do that for you……..whoever you are……

I know that, probably, no one is reading this…….but maybe there is someone out there that decided to take the time to read this blog and to them I say,

THANK YOU!

And I hope you join me on this journey of “finding my voice” and the portion I have to share with the world.

Sometimes maybe you don’t have to have it all figured out to just push the “start” button…..

So here I go……I am pushing start and I am making the decision right now to not let fear or the need to be perfect stop me from sharing with you whatever I can that might help you and bring encouragement or value to your life.

Maybe this year we can do that together. Let’s release whatever it is inside that we should share with the world.

WoW…..I feel so much better……empowered……let’s do this!

So here is to a new year – 2017!

Let it be a year full of joy, full of adventure.

A year that propels us to a new level.

When we get there may we cherish each moment and not miss the smells, the colors, and the sites.

To new goals – and to never holding back and never letting fear stop us!

Really? Why would you want to “figure it out for yourself”? Why do people think that it’s better for someone to have to go through horrible experiences to learn when someone else can tell them and save the headache. I am a firm believer in learning from your mistakes. Don’t get me wrong. I am just seeing so many people feel the need to experience things for themselves and I don’t see the point. If I go through something terrible and I learn from that, when I share with someone my experiences and my advice on how to avoid the same problem, if my friend then goes and decides they need to see for themselves, when they go through the same issue I went through I would feel confused and a bit hurt. As if they didn’t trust my advice.I would also like to think that the fact I have overcome some issues and learned from it, that the things I have learned can help someone and that the poo I went through, something good is coming out of that. Isn’t that what blogging is about also? That we as writers share our experiences and give input on how we overcame some issues or and ice on how to deal with problems and as readers we are searching for answers to problems.

I have also seen this same belief in parents and children. Parents will at times withhold advice or information that would help their child succeed further than they did. Instead of giving them tools to excel, tools they squired through hardship, they say “They have to learn it just like I did.” Why? Isn’t that why parents are there? To help thier children have a more successful life. To excel and exceed thier parents? The impartation of wisdom from parents is crucial to a persons success.

(watch this video above. I started a Youtube Channel in order to learn from you all and to share with you everything I know.)

There is a reason God made us to have relationships with each other. So that we can lift each other up and help each other overcome obsticles and help warn so that obsticles can be prevented.

We can’t be stubborn and too proud to learn from someone else. If we all learn from each other’s mistakes then we will all succeed more and reach our highest potential. There is supply in the joints and in the joining of people together. Be humble to listen and ask questions and be caring and loving enough to share what you have learned so others don’t have to endure the same headaches.

I know you have done the same thing, don’t lie. You have flipped through your friends Facebook photos or scrolled through Pinterest finding amazing blogs all the while slipping slowly into a depressed state. Am I right? Who is with me?

Being a designer and involved in productions I should know that everything is a facade. More and more people know how to photoshop. Not to mention, those Instagram filters can really do a work on a bad photo. Yet I also get sucked in to the vortex of comparison with Facebook friends, complete strangers with a blog or YouTube channel that makes me green of envy. What they don’t show is their bathrooms right before they cleaned them and set up their lights to make the perfect “DIY tutorial” of course everyone is going to clean and perfect every detail before they post it on the Internet for the world to see. Yet we forget when we are surfing to remember that everyone poops and everyone has BO at times.

We are all made perfectly and should never compare ourselves to someone else. Especially when they have highly produced their images and videos to look amazing.

What ultimately matters is not how awesome your life looks on Facebook or any other social network site. What ultimately matters is who are you face to face. How do you treat other people? It’s a heart matter. Social media has crippled our priorities it has made us more focused on images, how many likes and how many friends we have that we forget to make real connections with people. Going beyond ourselves to invest into someone else and build relationships that change things and make a difference.

Have you ever had a really awesome idea and you start thinking, planning and thinking some more. Then you start sketching, planning then doing a little more thinking and all of a sudden you see your idea on a blog or social media somewhere. You kick yourself because you knew you thought about it first. If only you had done it quicker instead of thinking so much. I don’t know about you but I feel like that has happened to me countless times.

I am definitely battling the perfectionist syndrome. When you have an idea you “see it” you can see the whole picture and how it should play out. So you think everything has to be perfect before you even start. Wrong!

This actually is a mind shifter for me. I think on one hand 60% of the work is in the planning. But at some point there needs to be action taken. Even just a small step towards the goal. There are so many things out there that can cause us to feel insecure to take a step because, what if we fail? Well, what if we don’t?

I can understand the battle of overcoming that mindset. I think for artist it is the most difficult because it is more than just product or just making something. It’s about making something beautiful. When we as artists see the image and see the plans in our mind so beautifully crafted. When what we put out at first isn’t what we imagined we aren’t satisfied until it’s finished. Just like Leonardo DiVince, he has many paintings that are still “unfinished” but to everyone else they are looking at a complete masterpiece. To Leo he would see the pieces from his mind that were missing on the canvas.

We should strive to get to the completed masterpiece but also be bold enough to just create. Beauty is really in the eye of the beholder. When we create things that are not yet “perfect” in our mind. Someone else might look at it and think it is more than perfect.

Be encouraged that whatever you are imagining will come. So take a step towards that dream and start with the first brushstroke. Don’t be discouraged by the process because one day you will make your Mona Lisa.

There are so many challenges to designing a brochure but also so many opportunities to be creative and stand out from the sea of brochure designs. Almost every business has a brochure (or should) and that greatest challenges is probably the challenge to stand out from the crowd of brochures.

I have to say that designing brochures is not the most exciting thing for me. I love a challenge but it just seems less than exciting to design a brochure but they are such a great staple marketing need for every business. It is exciting when you can get creative with the folds or cut outs in the design but not everyone’s budget can allow for that kind of added printing expense. Here is where the challenge begins.

When designing a brochure you have to balance the visual layout with the “information” content. When people are thumbing through a brochure you have to be mindful of where the information is and how the eye flows across the page. Think about leading them with the graphics to each important point you want to bring out about your business.

Using color is important. Don’t be afraid to use large images that bleed over across panels. This will bring the whole design together across the brochure and encourage people to continue reading throughout the information. Also remember to pull out information and make it special. One of the ways to do this might be a “block quote”. You want to think of creative ways to pull out key points you want people to see that might draw them in to read more in the brochure.

Brochure designs don’t have to be boring or daunting. Pull out those creative juices, grab a good cup of coffee and have fun. Think of the endless possibilities you can create to enhance the key points of your company, event, or organization.

I am currently moving into a new office and thinking through a redesign.
Moving into a new office can be overwhelming and exciting. I have compiled a wish list of a few things that I am dreaming of for my redesign for my new office. I started out with a color palette to help guide the redesign and then hit the Inspiration sites. Created a pin board for inspiration. I have shown a few of my favorite pieces that I am wanting for my office. I am loving the pastels lately and I always feel more inspired to be creative in a bright environment so I am opting for white walls. I love the contrast of the black and white with the pastels. The clean geometric pattern I think will create a nice clean environment for a work space.

What are your favorite pieces in your work space? Do you have anything in your office that you can’t work without?

Inspiration is a key to an creative project. It is one of the first steps in completing a design project for me. Check out my blog on my creative process to see where my “inspiration” section fits in to the mix.

< 1 > Pinterest.com – does this really need to be said? The best source of inspiration. I will often times just look over my own boards and revisit some of my favorites that I have forgotten. Or I will go through the search tab for specific inspiration. This is good site also for just overall inspiration.

< 2 > dribbble.com – This site is fantastic for specifically searching for design inspiration. Using the tags you can search through other designers work to see what the going trends are and spark some ideas. We need each other, collaboration is a great way to stay inspired and creative. Dribbble was a great invention, whoever came up with it did a great service for the design community.

< 3 > siteinspire.com – I love browsing through this site when I come across a web design job. You can narrow your search to look for specific design styles. All of the websites for inspiration here are great and you are assured that you will have plenty of design inspirations.

< 4 > designspiration.com – This site is a great site to scroll through for inspiration. There are also categories to help narrow the search.

< 5 > logofaves.com – Logo designs are a very important part of the whole branding process of a company. It can be overwhelming to try and find inspiration for logo designs. This is a great resource for those logo designing projects.

< 6 > abduzeedo.com – This is a graphic design blog with great resources for inspirations as well as tutorials. This is a great site to check out.

< 8 > theinspirationgrid.com – This website has a beautiful grid layout (hence the name) with large list of categories of inspiration.

< 9 > Creativemarket.com – This site is great for inspiration. They also have weekly free downloads. Visit their Facebook page and they have extra Facebook exclusive free downloads.

< 10 > google.com – This might be a strange addition to the list but I find it helpful when I am working on a specific project to use adjectives (usually the adjectives I ask my clients in their pre-project questionnaire). When working on something specific it is nice to type in keywords and see what comes up that might spawn some out of the box creative thinking.

It is always amazing to work with clients that are friends and creative fun people that are creative out of the box thinkers. Working with Kimberly has been amazing.

Above is the mood inspiration board for her rebranding. She is an amazing talented musician and singer. She was looking to create a brand and identify for her music and called me and asked me to help her out and it has been such a pleasure! She is such a fun bubbly person full of energy and creative thinking. She also has this amazing girly rocker side to her. My goal was to blend the two bringing the edgy rock to the fun girly side. I am please with the overall product.

Designing for a new office can be fun and also overwhelming there are so many things that you can choose from. So many styles, color palettes, ideas, and designs. Starting with Pinterest and looking at inspiration my “Office Inspiration Board” quickly filled up with ideas some were similar and some were completely different then the others. I began to get confused so I decided to create a mood board just like I do for my clients. It really helped to see the overall look that I was wanting for my office.

Something I have noticed, attempting to redesign and decorate your office while you are also continuing to work in it day by day can be challenging. IF you are able to quit working until the redesign is done, that would be the best option. But it has definitely strengthened my patience and sharpening my focus on the tasks. I can tell that your environment has an effect on your work and so it is important to make your surroundings yours. If you don’t have an office and you are in a work environment with cubicles or small workspaces. Find a way to add a little something that adds your personality to it.

I think something important to think about while designing for your office is that this is a place that you are meant to work in. That makes the design process much different than a bedroom or a living space. Especially for a creative career you have to think of what designs, color schemes, patterns, and layout would continually inspire you to be creative and productive.

What are items that you use to personalize your workspace? Do you have any tips you have found that help you when redesigning your office space? what do you find helps you to be more productive?

Hey! I’m Emily Jean!

Hello! My name is Emily and welcome to my little corner. In the world of so many blogs I am honored you stopped over to mine. I hope you enjoy! My hope is to share as much as I can with you. I am a designer and a bit of a jane of all trades, so hopefully there is something that will enrich your life. Please click around, stay a while, and drop me a note and let me know you stopped by!